Suspects:
- Fiance's step-mother
- Area mail thief with prior charges
Update January 19
I got to take a detailed look at the last bill sent out from the credit card company. It shows 3 transactions, only 1 per day for 3 days. The first was done at a carry-out pizza place that I think is part of a gas station, the other two done at a BANK-affiliated ATM.
We got ahold of the pizza place, but they of course have no affiliation with the ATM. They said the ATM does not have a camera, and that the camera in their store does not point towards the ATM. I'm still curious to if the person ordered a pizza there and possibly paid with the cash from the ATM, so that they would show up on the camera if it were over the register, or at least showing the door where they come in. We still need info from who owns/operates the ATM.
Got ahold of the bank people, and they were rather hesitant to cooperate with us and made it sound like we, as citizens, had no access to the security tapes. Hopefully we can press the police enough to recover these tapes. They said they will still have security tapes from that time period though.
We only have the bill from December, while there are also previous charges from previous months, we may request those if unable to pindown a visual on the suspect. This waiting sucks... wish I could do this all myself and get a lead on this person in a week.
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Update January 17
We received transaction history with dates this thief took out money. I'm posting this before looking at the detailed documentation my fiance received, but going off what she told me, so I haven't fully analyzed it yet. All transactions were cash advances at ATMs of $200 in a part of town around where I live and am very familiar with. Some transactions were from gas stations, and I think one or more from a bank ATM. The catch is these ATMs are about 20 miles away from where my fiance's mail was being stolen. So here's where it gets interesting...
Her step-mother works in that general part of town where the transactions took place and are somewhat on her way to/from work. Why would a thief that steals mail from their box every day do transactions in a city 20 miles from where the mail stealing is taking place? That's a hell of a lot of effort unless that person both lives near my fiance's parent's house and works/visits the city in that same area often enough to do transactions.
My fiance is taking a copy of the transactions to the investigating police department to start investigating the locations and probably try to find security camera tape. The last transaction on the billing history was on December 8, which is just over a month ago. Hopefully the locations keep security tapes for longer than a month and the person stopped at an ATM that had security cameras. Chances are if transactions were done in a gas station, there are cameras on the exits so we would probably see who it is.
Her parents are going out of town this week and decided to put a hold on their mail. They have also registered a PO box for their normal mail for when they come back, so the mail thief probably won't be able to keep stealing their mail. Mail is now arriving at my fiance's PO box so hopefully we can keep tracking this thief.
I CAN'T WAIT TO CATCH THIS PERSON AND PUT THEIR ASS IN JAIL!
Part 2:
But, not all of this info leads directly to her step-mother. My fiance recently opened a store credit card with store in our local mall. She did this the day before we found out her mail was being stolen and a card was open under her name. We waited for 14 days and she never received the card, so we can only assume it was stolen from their mailbox also. Luckily, my fiance called and was able to pay off the card over the phone and close the account so no charges could be made.
We also thought back to previously this summer when she bought her wedding dress and opened a card through the store she bought it through. She never received that card, either, but at the time just thought it was a fluke.
Here's another thing. We got her credit report online and found a different brand of card open under her name that was opened in August 2005. Thankfully, no charges had been made on the card. She called the place and cancelled the card. The card company said that on this application, the person who opened it gave my fiance's current last name (which is a very common last name) as her mother's maiden name, which is obviously incorrect. This last name given was different than the last name given on her card that was opened and has fraud charges on it. So either this person was trying to make another guess at it or something. She asked how the person opened the card, and they said they did not know.
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Update January 11
Talked with another person from US Secret Service, who suggested that spoofing a phone number was "pretty sophisticated" and that he had only heard of one identity theft where that was the case. He claimed that the fact that my fiance's step-mother never filed an ID Theft claim "very fishy" and that what was happening to my fiance sounded like "an inside job" more-like somebody close to her would be responsible for opening this card.
We got the CC company to send us a copy of the application, which may or may not be to compare handwritting if it was hand-filled out (hopefully) or at least see which name they tried to use as her mother's maiden name. We are calling back today to request transaction history and tried to get it on the last call, but due to the CSR not understanding english very well... ......... yeah. If the transaction was opened over the phone, I plan to persue a copy of the call recording for voice-recognition purposes. If the transaction was opened over the internet, I plan to persue the IP address and/or computer information of the person who submtted it.
When presented with the transaction information, I plan to compare dates and times of her step-mother's possible work schedule (not fully documented yet)--like if the transactions were all done outside of her normal 8am-5pm work schedule, or on weekends or her possible days off. Her dad and step-mother were also out of the country at some point in November, so I will be comparing transaction and open-card dates/times with those dates as well. Being out of the country could have also made it easier for the thief to steal items from their mailbox (I'm not sure if their mail was held during that time), and/or intrude into their house or tap into their phone box to make the call.
My fiance says her step-mother usually arrives first to the house before her dad and would have the opportunity to filter mail and dispose of credit card bills and such, making her a further suspect.
QUESTION: Is there anything else I should gather to prove/disprove it was her step-mother? I've thought about trying to get their bank records to see if they made deposits of identical amounts of charges to my fiance's card or made transactions at the same ATM at some point. Also thought of getting phone records but not sure if that would help much, to see if anything is logged about what type of phone is used to call from that home number.
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January 9
I'll start off by saying that my fiance's step-mother who lives at the same address her mail arrives at had a very similar incident with a credit card opened in her name without her knowledge this summer.
My girlfriend called me on Friday (January 6) hysterical that a credit card company was calling her claiming she had about $2000 outstanding balance that she never opened. She called their fraud line and found that a card had been opened in November from a person calling from her home phone number (the same house mail arrives at). They said that the charges had been done as cash advances at an ATM, which I believe is what happened to her step-mother's card.
I asked my fiance if she had received any bills from this CC company, she said no. Well, to do cash advances at an ATM, you need a physical card, right? She called the card place back today and got the information from them that a card had been shipped to her normal mailing address and that 2 bills had been sent since then, one of which was sent on January 4. So it's obviously not something random in another state/country, but something happening right at home with somebody filtering/stealing her mail. This makes sense because the person "called from her home phone number" to open the card, so this person could either be tapping their phone and/or tapping their telephone box to make this call. We still have yet to call somebody out to look at the box.
I had her call the post office to report the mail theft, and the person she talked to (her across-and-down-the-street neighbor by coincidence) said that there had been several reports of mail theft in the area and the person doing it had been arrested several times for it.
The house is in a rural county and the street they live on is in a housing district, but the box and house are somewhat far away from another house for them to directly see, making their box an easy target.
Here is what we've done so far:
- Canceled the card over the phone with the CC company.
- Reproted the identity theft to the card company and requested an ID Theft Affidavit to report the card unauthorized and hopefully get her responsibilities for the charges waived.
- Placed a fraud alert on all 3 credit reporting agencies.
- Filed an identity theft report with the FTC.
- Called the local police department and filed an identity theft report and that mail is possibly being stolen from their mail box.
- Called the local post office to report mail theft.
- Plan to open a PO box at her post office to keep mail from coming to her home address.
Our concern now is that the credit reports from the 3 credit agencies will be stolen before we can get them to see what OTHER possible accounts this person has tried/successfully opened in her name. She has a very good credit score from paying off a brand new car loan and currently paying for college by herself, making it very dangerous for somebody to have her information that could possibly ruin her credit. Thankfully the CC company said they had not reported these charges to the credit agencies so this one may be safe... but still waiting on those credit reports to arrive...
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Cliffs:
- Credit card opened under fiance's name w/o her knowledge, $2000 in charges
- Similar thing happened to fiance's step-mother @ same house
- We think it's mail theft bc she never received bills/letters from them
- Reports of mail theft in their area previously, a person arrestested several times
- Fiance's step-mother
- Area mail thief with prior charges
Update January 19
I got to take a detailed look at the last bill sent out from the credit card company. It shows 3 transactions, only 1 per day for 3 days. The first was done at a carry-out pizza place that I think is part of a gas station, the other two done at a BANK-affiliated ATM.
We got ahold of the pizza place, but they of course have no affiliation with the ATM. They said the ATM does not have a camera, and that the camera in their store does not point towards the ATM. I'm still curious to if the person ordered a pizza there and possibly paid with the cash from the ATM, so that they would show up on the camera if it were over the register, or at least showing the door where they come in. We still need info from who owns/operates the ATM.
Got ahold of the bank people, and they were rather hesitant to cooperate with us and made it sound like we, as citizens, had no access to the security tapes. Hopefully we can press the police enough to recover these tapes. They said they will still have security tapes from that time period though.
We only have the bill from December, while there are also previous charges from previous months, we may request those if unable to pindown a visual on the suspect. This waiting sucks... wish I could do this all myself and get a lead on this person in a week.
==========================================
Update January 17
We received transaction history with dates this thief took out money. I'm posting this before looking at the detailed documentation my fiance received, but going off what she told me, so I haven't fully analyzed it yet. All transactions were cash advances at ATMs of $200 in a part of town around where I live and am very familiar with. Some transactions were from gas stations, and I think one or more from a bank ATM. The catch is these ATMs are about 20 miles away from where my fiance's mail was being stolen. So here's where it gets interesting...
Her step-mother works in that general part of town where the transactions took place and are somewhat on her way to/from work. Why would a thief that steals mail from their box every day do transactions in a city 20 miles from where the mail stealing is taking place? That's a hell of a lot of effort unless that person both lives near my fiance's parent's house and works/visits the city in that same area often enough to do transactions.
My fiance is taking a copy of the transactions to the investigating police department to start investigating the locations and probably try to find security camera tape. The last transaction on the billing history was on December 8, which is just over a month ago. Hopefully the locations keep security tapes for longer than a month and the person stopped at an ATM that had security cameras. Chances are if transactions were done in a gas station, there are cameras on the exits so we would probably see who it is.
Her parents are going out of town this week and decided to put a hold on their mail. They have also registered a PO box for their normal mail for when they come back, so the mail thief probably won't be able to keep stealing their mail. Mail is now arriving at my fiance's PO box so hopefully we can keep tracking this thief.
I CAN'T WAIT TO CATCH THIS PERSON AND PUT THEIR ASS IN JAIL!
Part 2:
But, not all of this info leads directly to her step-mother. My fiance recently opened a store credit card with store in our local mall. She did this the day before we found out her mail was being stolen and a card was open under her name. We waited for 14 days and she never received the card, so we can only assume it was stolen from their mailbox also. Luckily, my fiance called and was able to pay off the card over the phone and close the account so no charges could be made.
We also thought back to previously this summer when she bought her wedding dress and opened a card through the store she bought it through. She never received that card, either, but at the time just thought it was a fluke.
Here's another thing. We got her credit report online and found a different brand of card open under her name that was opened in August 2005. Thankfully, no charges had been made on the card. She called the place and cancelled the card. The card company said that on this application, the person who opened it gave my fiance's current last name (which is a very common last name) as her mother's maiden name, which is obviously incorrect. This last name given was different than the last name given on her card that was opened and has fraud charges on it. So either this person was trying to make another guess at it or something. She asked how the person opened the card, and they said they did not know.
==========================================
Update January 11
Talked with another person from US Secret Service, who suggested that spoofing a phone number was "pretty sophisticated" and that he had only heard of one identity theft where that was the case. He claimed that the fact that my fiance's step-mother never filed an ID Theft claim "very fishy" and that what was happening to my fiance sounded like "an inside job" more-like somebody close to her would be responsible for opening this card.
We got the CC company to send us a copy of the application, which may or may not be to compare handwritting if it was hand-filled out (hopefully) or at least see which name they tried to use as her mother's maiden name. We are calling back today to request transaction history and tried to get it on the last call, but due to the CSR not understanding english very well... ......... yeah. If the transaction was opened over the phone, I plan to persue a copy of the call recording for voice-recognition purposes. If the transaction was opened over the internet, I plan to persue the IP address and/or computer information of the person who submtted it.
When presented with the transaction information, I plan to compare dates and times of her step-mother's possible work schedule (not fully documented yet)--like if the transactions were all done outside of her normal 8am-5pm work schedule, or on weekends or her possible days off. Her dad and step-mother were also out of the country at some point in November, so I will be comparing transaction and open-card dates/times with those dates as well. Being out of the country could have also made it easier for the thief to steal items from their mailbox (I'm not sure if their mail was held during that time), and/or intrude into their house or tap into their phone box to make the call.
My fiance says her step-mother usually arrives first to the house before her dad and would have the opportunity to filter mail and dispose of credit card bills and such, making her a further suspect.
QUESTION: Is there anything else I should gather to prove/disprove it was her step-mother? I've thought about trying to get their bank records to see if they made deposits of identical amounts of charges to my fiance's card or made transactions at the same ATM at some point. Also thought of getting phone records but not sure if that would help much, to see if anything is logged about what type of phone is used to call from that home number.
==========================================
January 9
I'll start off by saying that my fiance's step-mother who lives at the same address her mail arrives at had a very similar incident with a credit card opened in her name without her knowledge this summer.
My girlfriend called me on Friday (January 6) hysterical that a credit card company was calling her claiming she had about $2000 outstanding balance that she never opened. She called their fraud line and found that a card had been opened in November from a person calling from her home phone number (the same house mail arrives at). They said that the charges had been done as cash advances at an ATM, which I believe is what happened to her step-mother's card.
I asked my fiance if she had received any bills from this CC company, she said no. Well, to do cash advances at an ATM, you need a physical card, right? She called the card place back today and got the information from them that a card had been shipped to her normal mailing address and that 2 bills had been sent since then, one of which was sent on January 4. So it's obviously not something random in another state/country, but something happening right at home with somebody filtering/stealing her mail. This makes sense because the person "called from her home phone number" to open the card, so this person could either be tapping their phone and/or tapping their telephone box to make this call. We still have yet to call somebody out to look at the box.
I had her call the post office to report the mail theft, and the person she talked to (her across-and-down-the-street neighbor by coincidence) said that there had been several reports of mail theft in the area and the person doing it had been arrested several times for it.
The house is in a rural county and the street they live on is in a housing district, but the box and house are somewhat far away from another house for them to directly see, making their box an easy target.
Here is what we've done so far:
- Canceled the card over the phone with the CC company.
- Reproted the identity theft to the card company and requested an ID Theft Affidavit to report the card unauthorized and hopefully get her responsibilities for the charges waived.
- Placed a fraud alert on all 3 credit reporting agencies.
- Filed an identity theft report with the FTC.
- Called the local police department and filed an identity theft report and that mail is possibly being stolen from their mail box.
- Called the local post office to report mail theft.
- Plan to open a PO box at her post office to keep mail from coming to her home address.
Our concern now is that the credit reports from the 3 credit agencies will be stolen before we can get them to see what OTHER possible accounts this person has tried/successfully opened in her name. She has a very good credit score from paying off a brand new car loan and currently paying for college by herself, making it very dangerous for somebody to have her information that could possibly ruin her credit. Thankfully the CC company said they had not reported these charges to the credit agencies so this one may be safe... but still waiting on those credit reports to arrive...
====================================
Cliffs:
- Credit card opened under fiance's name w/o her knowledge, $2000 in charges
- Similar thing happened to fiance's step-mother @ same house
- We think it's mail theft bc she never received bills/letters from them
- Reports of mail theft in their area previously, a person arrestested several times
